Posts Tagged ‘Lawrenceville’
Up and out, but ever upwards
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Leading out of Skunk Hollow, one follows the curving route of Sassafras Street. Everytime I think the words ‘Sassafras Street,’ the voice of actress Holly Hunter enters my brain and pronounces it at ‘Shashafrash Shtreet.’
Don’t know why, I’m all ‘effed up.
I also very well might be a phantom, floating along like some sort of localized psychic phenomenon or even a single red balloon (where are my 99 friends then?), while haunting a filthy black raincoat and operating a camera. Is it so bad to be translucent? Racist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The street itself is defined by the presence of the former Iron City Brewery. Huge industrial walls dominate, and I could definitely ‘feel eyes’ on me staring down from within.
A few open windows suggested some sort of morbid habitation. Probably junkies, but it could also be the black eyed ‘children’ who dwell in the mines, who are greatly dreaded in the folklore of the Appalachian mythos.
Let’s go with the latter, since it’s spookier, and since I might be a floating phantasm, they’d be my ‘peeps.’ Also, if you hear somebody calling your name from the woods in Appalachia during the night, no you didn’t.
Do not whistle at night, ever.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sassafras Street grades up to the local ‘grid’ at its apex, where the vehicle entry to the brewery used to be. It’s all ruins.
If this was back at Newtown Creek, my guess would be that some ugly chemical had been discovered on the site and that the developers were ‘air-sparging’ it away, but this ain’t Brooklyn or Queens.
Air-SPARGing is when you dig away all the concrete on a development site, and hope that precipitation will either dilute the contaminant, or that weather and subsidence on the affected plot will migrate the objectionable chemical downwards into the mud and beyond a point where the environmental legislation governing your brownfield/post industrial property won’t describe it as ‘dangerous,’ due to a lack of human exposure pathways. Still there, mind you.
The alternative would be a long and costly process which involves the installation of ‘recovery wells.’ Real estate people don’t like ‘long and costly.’ They’d actually prefer it if you just threw your money into their car windows when they drive up, so they don’t have to get out of the car at all.
Regarding ‘air-SPARGing’ if you live in Long Island City, or on the east river coast of Greenpoint, guess what?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I know too many things to ever be happy, even as a phantom.
One last look toward the Iron City Brewery site, and off I went towards the dwelling places of the humans. The rest of this scuttle was pretty ‘low core’ but I was still ‘ready to rock.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A quick street crossing, and I was entering the zone known as ‘Lawrenceville.’ This is a fairly well populated area which has actually been enjoying a population expansion in recent years. It seems that this is a preferred dwelling area for the ‘tech bros.’ Pittsburgh has several outfits involved in ‘bleeding edge’ technologies like AI and robotics. Self driving vehicles have also been in testing/production here for a decade.
There’s money down there, yo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plan for the rest of the day involved me following a set of rail tracks, in pursuance of solving a personal mystery, but that’s for tomorrow.
Boo! I’m a ghost! Scared ya? April Fools, kid!
Back with more, then.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Double time
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last phases of a recent, and quite long, walk occurred along familiar territory. After debarking the Herron Street Bridge, one ‘hung a left’ onto Pittsburgh’s Penn Avenue. My next destination was off in the distance, where those tall buildings lurk.
As mentioned at the start of this multi week series of posts, the weather was on my side for once. It was fairly warm, with mild winds, and no precipitation was forecast.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A rail trestle, one that connects to the 33rd street rail bridge, was observed on Penn and then one moved on after cataloguing its location. This would be a great spot for getting shots of that ‘white whale’ rail service – the one which I can never seem to reliably catch shots of – the Allegheny Valley RR.
I kept on keeping on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some of that new construction cracked me up while walking along. Antics… wonder if this one passed inspection… I’ll bet it did.
This section is kind of a boring walk, with shops and stores selling stuff. Former warehouse buildings, some converted over to U-Haul dealerships or strip clubs, with some still warehouses still functioning according to their built purposes. There’s a few auto mechanic, and services, oriented businesses and at least once every two blocks there’s an opportunity for you to buy some branded Steeler’s ‘merch.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 40th street Bridge was passed by next.
At this stage, I was mainly carrying the camera rather than wielding it, as I had just passed through this section a mere week before this occasion.
Along the way, conscious arrangements of my feet on the pavement were conducted, vouchsafing the gamey ankle and working on improvements to ‘gait.’ Can’t run before you can walk, all that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was the 16th street Bridge.
The short time goal for this section of my day involved getting to one of the T stations, to grab a quick ride to the South Side, and thereby save myself a couple of extra miles of walking and gain an hour of daylight.
By the time I got back to HQ, and checked, it seems that I had broken well through that noisome ten mile barrier which has defied me since the orthopedic incident.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, the last bridge on this section of the walk, and it was the approach trestle to the Fort Wayne Rail Bridge. Whew.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Sweets, and sours
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a fairly long walk that began a few miles away in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty section and continued towards and through Bloomfield, snaked long the rim of a ravine called Skunk Hollow, and then continued onto Polish Hill which brings us here, to the Herron Avenue Bridge.
As detailed in the link above, this bridge carries pedestrian and vehicle traffic over the East Busway and several railroad rights of way. Apparently, it was closed off for emergency repairs during much of 2025, but then again so was I.
The bridge touches down at the angle between Bloomfield and Polish Hill, The Strip District, and Lawrenceville. I’ve had only topical contact with these places, as of yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bridge provides a front row seat to the former Pittsburgh Brewing Company campus, wherein Iron City brand beer was brewed. If I’m reading the source material correctly, this structure dates back to 1866.
The rail tracks are shiny, indicating regular usage.
Iron City beer is brewed north of Pittsburgh these days, in a converted glass factory. Word has it that there’s a development project underway on this historic landmark, but that it’s been stalled for quite a while.
I am not doing any historic research. None.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The brewery itself seems to be in deleterious condition. One walked back and forth on the bridge for a few minutes, taking in the scene. I’d love to get the camera inside of that place sometime, but that would require me having to engineer the opportunity. I don’t want to talk to anyone anymore, ever again. Lone wolf, me.
I’m sure there’s a way to sneak in, but that just ain’t my style.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This building with the Hershey’s branding confused me, but a quick bit of online sleuthing suggested that this part of the PBC campus was recently used during production of a biopic movie about Milton Hershey, which was recently shot in and around Pittsburgh.
After thoroughly staring at everything, I began to move on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot looks towards Downtown, and the East Busway. The steel truss is the 28th street bridge, which I’ve walked and commented upon in the past. As I keep saying, there’s a systematic method to all this madness.
One headed back down to street level,
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a long shot of the Herron Street Bridge, in the middle of the shot above, just for the sake of completeness. Not sure what was going on with all that mud and the heavy trucks, but there’s an amazing amount of new construction going on nearby, so it’s probably related to all that.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Views from Tryp Wyndham
Monday the 13th
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had set a summertime goal, wherein we’d be visiting some seven rooftop bar/restaurant situations here in Pittsburgh during the summer. We have only made it to two of them.
One of them was downtown, atop one of the fancy hotels.
The second that we did manage to visit was the Tryp Wyndham’s ‘Over Eden’ rooftop space just as September began. Lovely views, btw,
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the 40th Street Bridge, pictured above. On the other side of the river is Rialto Street and the neighborhood of Troy Hill. The Tryp hotel itself is housed in a converted municipal building found in the Lawrenceville section.
We had arrived with the intention of ‘dinner and drinks,’ so the car had been left at home and we used an Uber rideshare to get here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems like a nice place to live, Lawrenceville, but as I’ve mentioned in the past – the gentrification furnaces have been stoked hereabouts. Property prices and rents are substantially higher here than in neighboring areas. To make an NYC real estate related analogy, this ‘zone’ is currently Pittsburgh’s North Brooklyn.
Also, I’m enjoying the lack of ‘urbanity’ we’ve got in Dormont.
The drinks were cocktails, and I had a cruise ship style rum punch. Our Lady went all classy and ordered a dirty gin Martini. The food was ok, but nothing to write home about. It’s the view they’re selling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That church keeps on jumping out at me whenever I’m passing through this area, which I’ve been working my way since the early summer. Next time…
Just as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself is dipping down behind Ohio, that’s when you want to be up here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just look at how much of that ‘affordable housing’ is used as a parking garage. I mean… you gotta park somewhere, and I guess it’s part of the ‘sell,’ but the garage is quite a bit bigger than the dwelling.
Funnily enough, the ‘bicycle people’ are currently asserting themselves in this neighborhood, pushing the ‘safe streets’ agenda and labeling anyone who opposes their plans as atavist primitives who love to murder people while behind the wheel. I once had one of the ‘bicycle people’ in Queens tell me that ‘the second a car key is inserted in the ignition, the driver exists in state of pre-murder.’ Ideologues, gotta hate ‘em.
Same person once referred to automobiles as ‘Mobile Oppression Platforms,’ which is why I named my car the ‘M.O.P.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the view from the Tryp rooftop at sunset. I’m planning on stopping off here in the future, especially so on nights when there’s lots of clouds. Must look absolutely incredible, this view, during overcast conditions, at sunset.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Corridors, oh the urbanity
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a scuttle down Penn Avenue from Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield, and then Lawrenceville, towards the Strip District and then ‘downtown.’ Along the way, I noticed a colorful bit of architecture and it turns out that it’s the Pittsburgh Midwife Center. Neat.
I was pulled in by the artwork on a mural they have installed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s just lovely, thought a humble narrator. Nice.
The section I was walking through seems to have escaped the gentrification hammers so far. At least the old building stock, and some of the businesses which occupy them, seem to still be extant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Signage occasionally catches my eye. My guess is that this is a late 1980’s vintage painted sign. It’s mainly the design sense that says ‘1980’s’ to me.
Good news is that the shop’s window has an ‘open to the public’ sign in the window, meaning I now know where to go shopping for commercial grade cooking equipment. This replaces that joint on 43rd and Northern I used to buy pots and pans from, back in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Strip District, where you can express your love of all things Pittsburgh by buying souvenirs and gewgaws. There’s also a bunch of multi generational businesses which offer specialty meats and cheeses, candy and treats, and all the Steelers and/or Pirates gear you can afford. Very popular area.
The streets there are positively infested with humans.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Exiting the Strip and approaching the last leg of the day’s effort. This ‘zone’ used to be involved in the commercial level of food distribution. In NYC, this area would be referred to as a ‘terminal market.’ Essentially, produce and meats would arrive by boat and train from extant locations and then were sold to market and shop owners wholesale. The latter would then stock their retail shelves in whatever section of the city they served. The Heinz factory was just on the other side of the river from here, btw.
It was time for a quick sit down, incidentally, as the humidity had been growing all day and your humble narrator needed a break from the sun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I sat down on the steps of a church, and within a couple of minutes, the Pastor came outside and asked if I needed a drink of water or wanted to come and sit inside to partake of their air conditioning. This was extremely nice of the fellow, thought I. Very Christian.
I introduced myself, and mentioned my nascent desires to get the ‘sacred spaces’ project going. We exchanged business cards. Hopefully, I’ll get an invite to come inside and photograph the place sometime.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 